


the world on fire

by ellernock



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Injuries, Other, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-21
Updated: 2013-07-21
Packaged: 2017-12-20 21:13:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/891936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellernock/pseuds/ellernock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Trost District is sealed off, Armin receives burns from rescuing Eren from his titan body. His friends very much augment the healing process. Three drabbles that looked too tiny to have their own chapters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the world on fire

**Author's Note:**

> a note: this fic was sparked by [this illustration](http://ellernock.tumblr.com/post/54845797017/dem-hips-urdchama-i-cant-remember-if-this), which conflicted with some character headcanons of mine but was too dang cute. so i wrote fic loosely based off it and there is a painting in the works. i didn’t want to post this without its picture, but the painting is not finished yet and last saturday i had to rewrite the whole middle section because the manga isn’t as good at conveying location/time, at least for me! the Eren/Armin is extremely loosely implied; you could just take it as a particularly affectionate diamonds branch. please enjoy! c:

The smell was almost too much for him when he lifted Eren out of the jagged hole in the steaming corpse face-down against what had been the breach. The murk was all the air he could breathe and it smelled like death. Armin hadn’t been down with Mikasa the first time Eren had emerged from that…thing, the shell he controlled that they knew way too little about, and the smell had only risen up in the wind and mixed with the vapor from the recent rain boiling off the bricks. Sick, but no sicker than the back of that titan’s throat, and any disgust was overpowered by immense relief that his friend was alive. 

Maybe it was the temperature, but it reminded him of the time he got caught up in a book once when he was supposed to be stirring dinner and left it on the fire. Stupid mistake, and he’d felt awful about it (and eaten it anyway) but the burning smell was fresh in his mind. Combine that with what he remembered from a few years ago when he and Eren had to investigate what had happened in the cellar during the night (answer: dead mouse) and you had this fog. Sickly sweet burning all around his nose and mouth. He had already woven his arms under Eren’s and was pulling upward with as much power as he could, and the horrible gelatinous noises were there but the muscle fibers attached to his arms weren’t giving and holding him actually burned. Armin’s arms, hands, and a good bit of his neck and shoulder were red and on fire, and if he hadn’t had an extra layer on under his shirt he was pretty sure the bit of his chest Eren was leaning against would have been done for too. Eren was going to be worse off if they didn’t get him out soon, and they’d have to work fast even if not for the temperature. He could hear heavy footfalls in the distance and knew they wouldn’t be safe for very long anyway. His heart raced and he had to calm down his breathing and then he heard someone say they’d cut him out and he lost control all over again, because what if the arm didn’t grow back this time? He didn’t think he could watch the hands he knew best besides his own fall to the ground again, and this time in near-perfect clarity. But the quick surgical slices were just to the fibers burned onto him, and before he could stop pulling up and carry Eren down, they were falling back onto the cracked street below. The fuzziness and darkness he saw when they hit was just a product of the shock, probably, but—

No. It wasn’t a product of the shock at all, and arguably caused him more. 

He didn’t know how clutching Eren any closer was going to help them with two titans within grabbing distance, but apparently it was what his brain was going for and he didn’t have time to argue with it. He’d felt the fear for only a few seconds when there was a flash and a sound vaguely like flags snapping and then a great crash he assumed was falling titans and…was somebody posing on a titan staring off into the sunset? Apparently there hadn’t been enough drama today for this guy. Still, he could hardly critique the man’s skill. He made a quick tactical decision and kissed Eren’s temple while everyone was still distracted by bowlcut guy’s cape flapping in the wind. The call didn’t work so well practically. He was having to make excuses for suddenly scrubbing furiously at his mouth and coughing, but he was probably making Mikasa smile a little, so there was at least some benefit.

—-

They took him away not long after, and Armin and Mikasa didn’t see Eren again for three days; Armin worried himself sick over it and Mikasa did her best to get him to stop (she even let him mess around with her hair AND vent at the same time) but if it was good for anything all the fatigue from pulling so many different operations in Trost was kicking in and he didn’t have to think about it as much. He slept a lot, in the unfamiliar trainee barracks they were staying in, and his dreams were fevered and confusing, but he was asleep. 

His burns hadn’t blistered except on his hands and the medics with the Scouting Legion said he would be fine, but they were red and swollen and hurt like hell along with the other injuries he'd sustained. Mikasa helped him change the dressings on his hands, but left most of the ones on his neck alone for him to do. The ones on his neck and chest at least had a layer of fabric to go through, and he didn’t have to be as careful about wrapping them. He knew he was going to cheat and bind for the court date, but until then he wasn’t supposed to put pressure on any of the burns and it wasn’t like Mikasa was going to give him any trouble for it. He made do with a few of the undershirts Mikasa had just to feel more covered up. 

Armin tried to at least help her out with the wound on her face, but since the medics had cleaned out most of the broken roof tiles, all they really had to do was clean up the remaining and apply some ointment every once in a while. He appreciated her letting him do something, though, and it gave him a good excuse for being clingy. She was warm and solid and smelled a little bit like smoke and something vaguely floral. He knew she was probably shaken up inside too, but her emotions showed most when they didn’t show at all. She put on a flat mask and she made decisions too fast, putting herself forward like a shield for Eren. But she wasn’t metal, or wood, she was a girl, and he’d seen her adrenaline get the best of her at least once already. He wasn’t going to let her burn herself out if he could help it. Especially since there was nothing she could do about the trial right now; they couldn’t really affect the case much positively and there was nothing that could be done with violence. They just had to wait until Eren was awake. Mikasa fell back on the mattress, and he went with her, and just lay there with his head on her shoulder for a bit. “He’ll be okay," he said quietly, muffled into her scarf. He hoped the words didn’t sound as empty to her as they did to him. 

"Yeah."

—-

Eren was clinging to him in a very upset manner and while Armin would be glad to hug him any other time, it just wasn’t easy to hug people when you were having bandages wrapped around your fingers. Eren was squeezing around his ribs and the burns on his shoulder ached in sync with the bruises along his sides. The general pressure from his binder wasn’t helping either. The burns were somewhat healed, but they itched all the time and the deeper ones weren’t finished hurting yet. He knew Eren was upset for indirectly causing them, especially since he’d been helping out Mikasa with the treatment and then using it as an excuse to give Armin back rubs. He wanted to be totally able to take advantage of the month of relative safety they were going to have and spend time with the people he cared about without worrying if they were going to die, but the burns made things like hugs and hand-holding uncomfortable at best. 

"Eren." Mikasa had the advantage of being able to see Armin’s grimace from the front. 

"Shit!" Eren released his grip and pulled back, frowning. “Sorry. Shit." 

Armin nodded to Mikasa to stop wrapping up his hand for a second so he could turn, lean over and touch his forehead to Eren’s. “Hey. It’s okay, I’m fine. It’s way better than it was before."

Eren stiffened and drew back. “Yeah, I…Sorry."

"Even if I didn’t care about you like I do, I’d still have been doing my job and there wasn’t any way to avoid getting you out until after everything’d cooled down. Considering the first part, I was glad to be there to make sure you were okay. If I’d still been over on the other side of the district, I would have gotten too anxious worrying about you. A bit of a burn is nothing." 

For emphasis he stretched his head upwards and made a valiant attempt to kiss Eren’s forehead. It didn’t quite connect, but Eren appreciated the thought and carefully rubbed the side of Armin’s neck that wasn’t burned. Armin leaned into the gesture, shut his eyes again, and turned back to Mikasa. 

"Do we have another roll of bandages?" She nodded and handed over the extra sitting next to her. “Here, why don’t you do the other arm? It’ll go faster."


End file.
